


Rome, Season 1, Episode 1, The Stolen Eagle

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Rome (TV 2005)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Episode: s01e01 The Stolen Eagle, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Series Premiere, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 11:01:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16240283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Rome, Season 1, Episode 1, The Stolen Eagle

Open to a narrator explaining how, 400 years after the last king was driven out of Rome, there’s still division between the common people and nobility. There’s a shot of Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus hugging. Caesar fraternally kisses Pompey’s cheeks. Pompey simply turns away once the embrace is broken, but Caesar smiles at him. The narrator explains they ruled together peacefully.

There’s a shot of Pompey, and it’s explained he was once considered to be the greater man.

However, for the last eight years, with Pompey keeping the peace in Rome, Caesar has been waging a war in Gaul, and this has made him more rich and popular. There’s shots of Caesar, and the narrator continues Caesar aligns himself with the common people. Due to his popularity and wealth, there’s a fear he might make himself king.

In a battle, Lucius Vorenus blows a whistle several times. At one point, he yells at Titus Pullo by name. This makes it clear he, at least, knows of Pullo. At one point, he gets over to Pullo, and Pullo punches him. From what I’ve read, historically, the other soldiers would have killed Pullo then and there. As it is, they simply drag him away.

The next scene takes place in Caesar’s Camp in Gaul, 52 BC. Tied up, Pullo is being whipped as Vorenus lectures the crowd on Pullo’s bad behaviour.

In the crowd, Marc Antony takes a bite out of an apple.

Shut up, Marc Antony.

Vorenus’s speech is finished, Pullo is untied, and the latter makes a quip about how he was just starting to enjoy himself.

The thing is, though, I think Pullo is genuinely masochistic on several levels.

Later, the Gaul king is presented to Caesar. He drops his sword, and stripping him naked, some men push him down to his knees. He kisses Caesar’s standard, a golden eagle on top of a staff.

Inside a jail cell, Pullo tries to get someone’s attention. His cellmate tells him the war’s over. The others have been given two days to rape and pillage.

Pullo is not happy with being left out.

Outside, Posca, Caesar’s slave, is arguing with someone about the price of something. A man delivers a letter from Pompey to Caesar.

He starts to read it in a voice-over, and the scene switches to Pompey and Julia. She’s heavily pregnant and bleeding. She begs him to forgive her, and to calm her, he says he does, though, it’s clear he doesn’t think she’s done anything requiring forgiveness. He tearfully says he loves her, and she asks if to be good to her slaves and father. He promises.

She tells him to kiss her, and he does. Smiling, she makes a comment about his funny hair before dying.

Back in camp, Caesar finishes reading the letter, orders a protesting Posco to settle the deal with the man, and walks into his tent.

Coming in, Antony quickly notices Caesar’s morose mood.

My complaint about this scene is, I’ve seen Political Animals and how, on this show, Caesar interacts with Brutus and, to a lesser extent, Octavian. Ciarán Hinds does a wonderful job at playing paternal figures.

However, when it comes to Julia, Caesar’s only child, he’s temporarily morose, and then, he goes on. It makes no lasting impact. It could be argued he favours Brutus due to wanting a son and how Julia’s death might propel him to try to get closer to Brutus, but even then, his lack of genuine heartbreak is unfitting. Hinds not showing this heartbreak, whether due to direction or through his own choice, is a mistake.

It’s revealed the baby was a stillborn girl, and Caesar decides Pompey needs a new wife.

Now, I don’t have any objection to people remarrying, and I can certainly understand trying to coax a loved one into moving on, but exactly how long has Julia been dead? Wouldn’t it be better for Pompey to have some time to adjust to her death and try to heal?

In Rome, a hooded Pompey prays, and a bald servant/slave with tattoos on his head says there are more spoils from Caesar outside. Pompey goes outside, and across the street, Cato, Cicero, and several over men complain about Caesar and show classism in discussing the plebs.

Elsewhere, Timon makes his first appearance. He leads a beautiful white horse through the streets before handing it to someone.

The newsreader announces there’s a generous reward for the return of a stolen or absconded slave girl. He continues Senate sits tomorrow, and no disorder will be tolerated.

The next scene is of Atia of the Julii and Timon having sex with slaves present in the room. He’s subtly hurt when he realises the sex was her way of securing the horse for herself. It seems it’d be easy for him to say he had no idea her services were for sell, and thus, he had no intentions of purchasing them, but he doesn’t.

Later, Atia bathes, and showing he already has issues blooming, her son, Octavian, hides and watches her. Noticing him, she comes out of the tub to talk to him. Thankfully, she has a towel/toga put on. Bringing up the horse, she orders him to take it to Gaul to give it to Caesar in person.

Casually smacking a slave girl, he protests and bores her (Atia) with his legal knowledge. She promises he’ll have plenty of slaves to escort and protect him on the trip.

In the Senate, Cato expresses his disdain of Caesar’s campaign and wonders why Caesar is keeping Roman soldiers from their friends and families when he’s already so rich from his eight-year illegal war. It turns out Caesar has also paid the debts of everyone in the Senate house.

I assume there are some senators who didn’t have debts, including Cato. Otherwise, Cato accepted Caesar’s help, and then, made a fuss over Caesar giving such help.

Cato accuses Caesar of trying to buy himself a crown. He moves for Caesar’s governorship to be stripped, his armies disbanded, and for him to be recalled to Rome to answer charges of illegal warfare, theft, bribery, and treason. Pompey uses his veto, and based on what I’ve read, him doing so is historically inaccurate.

Getting everyone to settle down, Cicero expresses his disagreement with both Cato and Pompey’s methods in regards to Caesar.

Later, Pompey is at a play. Cato, Scipio, and Scipio’s daughter, Cornelia, come over to him. A widow of a brave soldier Pompey knew, Cornelia is an extremely prim-looking woman, and she protests being there by declaring, “There’s a lewd woman on the stage.” Wishing Pompey a goodnight, Scipio escorts his daughter away.

Cato asks if they can speak alone. They do, and Cato says, if Pompey wanted to crush Caesar, he couldn’t do it alone. Pompey disagrees. Cato urges him to align himself with Cato and the others. He says Pompey is the one the people truly love.

Refusing, Pompey leaves.

At the Julii household, Octavian packs a small pouch. Appearing, his older sister, Octavia, comforts him.

The next day, Octavian mounts the horse, and Atia is pleased, despite Octavia’s correct, sympathetic assertion Octavian is scared. Kissing her son, she informs a slave/hired guard, if her son isn’t returned safely, she’ll use the eyes of the man’s children for beads.

Elsewhere, the tattooed man is massaging Pompey. Another man comes, and Pompey happily asks about the horse. It turns out, he’s speaking of the white horse, and the man explains Atia is sending it as a gift to Caesar. The man leaves, and Pompey expresses his unhappiness, “Must he have everything?” Then, he says, since the tattooed man is going to be in Gaul anyways, he might kill two birds with one stone.

In Gaul, blue men steal Caesar’s standard.

There’s a shot of Octavian and his protectors riding.

Meanwhile, Pullo is drawing a penis.

Outside, Marcus Brutus appears, and Caesar is warm and welcoming. They settle down inside the tent to eat, and Caesar asks Brutus to deliver some letters to Brutus’s mother, Servilia. Antony comes in, and Brutus forces himself to be polite. I feel for him.

Antony tells Caesar he needs some money for the eagle, and Caesar rightfully doesn’t trust him but agrees to give him the money.

As soon as Antony leaves, Brutus comments, “I don’t know how you tolerate that man.” He asks about the eagle.

Caesar explains his personal standard was stolen. He says it’s doing nothing for camp morale. Brutus points out everyone seems happy enough, but Caesar attributes this to them being smart enough not to make their true feelings known. With Hinds’s acting implying otherwise, Caesar tells Brutus he’s at his wit’s end.

Elsewhere, Octavian is asleep on the horse, and the head protector wakes him. The camp is only a few miles away. Octavian is a brat about being touched without permission before demanding water.

Normally, I agree, barring certain circumstances, people shouldn’t be touched without permission, but in this case, the man did nothing wrong, and Octavian is just a brat.

Suddenly, the men are shot down, and Octavian is kidnapped.

Next, Antony and Vorenus have their first scene together.

Kevin McKidd (Vorenus) and James Purefoy (Marc Antony) starred together as lovers in a romantic comedy Bedrooms and Hallways, and I’d take both their characters in said movie over theirs in this series any day. However, despite my dislike for their characters here, they’re both really good at playing said characters.

Antony insultingly declares he’s heard Vorenus is smart. He asks Vorenus’s advice on retrieving the eagle. Vorenus suggests taking captives from every Gaul tribe and crucifying them one by one until someone tells where the eagle is. Once told, he’d suggest sending a few men to quietly steal it back.

Liking this plan, Antony puts Vorenus in charge of executing it. It’s made clear this isn’t what Vorenus wanted at all. Keeping half the money for himself, Antony gives it to Vorenus to use for bribes and stuff.

Later, men are crucified, and one of them begs for death. One of them explains what happened. Unhappy at his bad luck, Vorenus exasperatedly orders the men to be taken down. As Vorenus is walking away, the man who just crucified the men gives him a look showing obvious unhappiness at having to take them down so soon after doing the work to put them up there.

In his cell, Pullo is trying to bargain with whatever deity might be the most helpful at this moment.

Speaking of this, when it comes to Pullo, I’m not going to pay attention enough to accurately recap what deity or deities he invokes in various scenes since he unashamedly cherry picks them.

Vorenus and other man come to tell him, if he does his job in helping Vorenus, he’ll be spared damnation in the arena. He absolutely refuses. Upon being told about the eagle, he begins laughing.

In response, Vorenus just creepily stares at him.

He and Dexter Morgan could have a contest for which one is creepier. Of course, Dexter would easily win for who’s more likeable.

Interestingly, I wrote this review, including the line above, before Ray Stevenson guest-starred on Dexter.

At the Junii household, Brutus greets his mother. She immediately wants to know about Caesar. After teasing her about this, he gives her the letters.

In the next scene, she reads one. Her slave comforts her when she’s upset about him not saying “love”.

Elsewhere, Pullo tries to make conversation as they ride, and Vorenus grudgingly contributes. He lays things out: They have little chance of finding the eagle, since it could have been melted down, buried, or tossed in the sea. They’ll be disgraced for not finding it, and he choose Pullo, because, Pullo’s already disgraced. “In effect, you’re already dead.”

Pullo makes a good point, with nothing to lose, there’s nothing to stop him from killing Vorenus and riding off. Vorenus answers, if Pullo’s honour isn’t enough, Vorenus will have to rely on his superior fighting skills.

Back in Rome, at a party, Brutus is approaching drunk as he talks about his visit to Gaul. He complains about Servilia nagging him to enter politics. Taking his drink away, she says their family has been into politics for 500 years.

Pompey takes Brutus away for a private talk to ask about Caesar. Brutus gives his belief Caesar isn’t doing well and explains about the lost standard and Caesar’s supposedly unhappy men. Then, he unintentionally insults Pompey, although, Pompey doesn’t even realise he’s been insulted. Deciding to shut up before he digs himself deeper, Brutus quietly wanders away.

Meanwhile, Atia is reading a letter from Caesar. He wants Atia to choose a woman from their family to offer to Pompey in Caesar’s name.

Honestly, I think Pompey would prefer the horse more than he would a new wife.

Servilia comes over, and she and Atia politely talk. They may hate one another, but this doesn’t mean they can’t have pleasant discussions about dresses and their children.

Elsewhere, Octavian is tied up. His capturers laugh around a fire.

In a religious ceremony, Atia is drenched in bull’s blood, and a priest assures her no harm will come to Octavian.

If being tied up and drug around doesn’t fall under the category of harm, then, okay. Otherwise, someone needs to have a talk with Good Mother.

Later, Atia asks Octavia about her marriage. There were some difficulties in the past, but Octavia and her husband, Glabius, love one another. Atia claims to feel bad. She lays out her plan for Octavia to marry Pompey and be the first lady of Rome.

I find it amusing and oddly sweet how she informs her daughter Pompey might not have the best manners but that she’s been assured he’s a good lover.

Naturally, this will require Octavia and Glabius to divorce. Octavia refuses. Atia points out Caesar will ask Glabius to divorce Octavia and kill him if he refuses.

The next scene has Octavia in an ironic wedding-like outfit mournfully leaving her husband. In the liter, Atia mocks Glabius for crying, shows her disdain for effeminacy, perceived or otherwise, and complains about how well-fed his slaves look.

Putting aside the fact slavery is a horrible, despicable practise, if someone doesn’t have enough food, they’re going to provide bad service. It doesn’t matter if they’re a slave or a paid servant. Therefore, she’s complaining about the fact her ex-son-in-law wants effective slaves. Somehow, I doubt she’s doing so due to a realisation of how immoral slavery is.

At the Julii household, Atia orders a servant to put more arsenic on her daughter’s face. She demands Octavia try to look more cheerful.

Later, at a dinner party, Pompey is telling a war victory story, and Atia is politely listening. All of the arsenic has made Octavia look like a ghost, but Pompey claims to find her pleasing when asked. Atia offers Octavia in marriage, and he’s uncomfortable. He asks about Glabius.

“Divorced,” Atia quickly answers.

Agreeing, he says they need to wait until next month when the mourning period for Julia is over. Atia insists he partake in his betrothal privileges right away.

At least, she allows them to go to his bedroom and doesn’t insist on following them. This has to count for something.

In his bedroom, Pompey watches servants undress Octavia. She kneels on all fours on the bed, and he begins undressing himself.

At a campfire, an animal is being cooked, and Vorenus and Pullo talk. It’s established Pullo’s life basically revolves around food, fighting, and women. Vorenus received special dispensation to marry a woman named Niobe and knows the exact amount of time it’s been since he last saw her.

Pullo doesn’t understand why anyone would want to tie themselves to one person, because, the puppy hasn’t yet realised he’s met his soulmate.

In response, Vorenus inquires, “Pullo, when was the last time you had a woman who wasn’t crying or wanting payment?” Lying down, he says Pullo has first watch.

The next morning, Pullo is sound asleep, and Vorenus wakes up to find their horses being stolen.

They walk, and Pullo tentatively says the horses weren’t good, anyways. Giving a list of his family’s achievements, Vorenus ends with, “And I’m reduced to this. Unhorsed and robbed by children.”

They see the kidnappers. One of them whipping is Octavian to force him to pull a cart. The duo takes note of the white horse.

They quickly kill the men. Dedicating the dead men as offering, Pullo refuses to release Octavian until Octavian says “please”. After being released, Octavian beats a man to death.

He wants to be taken to Caesar immediately, but they tell him about their mission. Characterising it as a fool’s errand, he explains Caesar couldn’t care less about the standard and is only sending them to put on a show. Caesar wants Pompey to think losing the standard has weakened Caesar so that Pompey will attack first. When Julia died, the last link of their friendship was severed.

Sicking his hand in something, Vorenus comes out with blue fingers. He and Pullo discover the tattooed man hiding. He tries to run, but Vorenus impales him with a spear.

It turns out he had the standard on him.

The three ride back with Vorenus carrying it.

Hearing the cheering, Caesar goes outside. Despite his smile, he’s probably thinking he needs to be more careful to pick incompetent men even when he’s sure the mission is supposed to be doomed to failure. Next, he shows recognition of Octavian and surprise at seeing him.

I’m assuming Octavian has either visited Gaul before, or Atia has sent miniatures of him.

Caesar, Octavian, the duo, and Antony examine the tattooed man’s head, and Caesar declares Pompey has made the first move.

In Rome, Pompey is having a bust of his face created. He receives the tattooed man’s head along with a note from Caesar. Taunting, it promises to see Pompey in person soon.

Next, there’s a celebration outside, and Pompey and a fully-veiled woman walk together. Inside, he introduces his new wife. Removing her veil, she’s revealed to be Cornelia.

At the Julii household, Atia yells at Octavia. Octavia begins sobbing, and Atia semi-apologises for yelling.

Octavia hopes Glabius will take her back, but Atia makes it clear this won’t happen. She says they’ll find someone much better than him. Octavia declares she wants Pompey dead for humiliating her, and Atia promises she’ll have it. Octavia hugs her.

Meanwhile, the soldiers plus Octavian ride. Some are carrying the standard, and the naked Gaul king is in a cage.

The last shot is of a city burning to the ground.

Fin.


End file.
